Obano brings players' eye to rugby documentaries

From the age of 18, Beno Obano has been a voracious consumer of sports documentaries. When he started watching them though, little did he know it would lead to him one day making his own.

The Bath and England prop took his first steps into directing and producing in 2020 with the release of Everybody's Game, which examined discussions around perceptions of race and class in rugby union, and how the sport should be open to all.

Obano, who cites the 30 for 30 documentary Fantastic Lies on the Duke University lacrosse scandal as a particular favourite of his, has now gone behind the scenes with his club's Gallagher Premiership rivals Harlequins to document the reigning champions' preparations ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.

"As I became an adult, I fell in love with sports documentaries and thought 'I could try this'," Obano told Sky Sports at the premiere of the first episode of his three-part mini-series Prep To Win: Harlequins.

"When you play sport you have a bit of confidence and you think 'I'll try this' - and it worked out.

"We all have these conversations on the side saying 'this looks like rugby has a story to tell'. All of the players say it amongst themselves, so I just thought 'someone has got to do it!'.

"I just think there is a lot of content left on the table for rugby in general, so it just made sense to do it."

It is as much of a personal project for Obano as Everbody's Game was, lifting the lid on the intense and demanding training professional rugby players go through off the field to enable them to perform in front of thousands of spectators every weekend during the season.

The series does not shy away from tackling the hot-button issues of concussions and high tackles which are two of the major talking